Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageViolent men despise the innocent, but the upright seek to protect their life.
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GMen of blood hate the blameless; the upright seek to guard his life.
KJV
King James VersionThe bloodthirsty hate the upright: but the just seek his soul.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleMen of bloodshed hate a blameless man, but the upright care for his life.
Footnotes
The second clause is grammatically ambiguous: *yesharim yevaqshu nafsho* — 'the upright seek his *nephesh*' — where *nephesh* means the full animated self, the whole living person. Whether 'seek his *nephesh*' means to protect or to take the blameless man's life is genuinely contested; the LXX and most modern translations read the upright as protectors, which fits the antithetical structure of the proverb. *Nephesh* here carries its full weight as the animated, breathing being — not merely 'soul' in the abstract. FOG renders 'seek to guard his life' to make the protective reading explicit; FOG Message follows the same reading.